Faithful in despair at inept Leeds

By William Johnson

12:01AM GMT 12 Jan 2004

Leeds (0) 0 Tottenham (0) 1

Administration and relegation are closing in fast on ailing Leeds United like twin vultures. If the first fails to devour the stricken shell of a once-powerful concern, the second surely will after Saturday's appallingly weak response to the mounting crisis.

Leeds have another week to convince financial predators that they are worth saving. Those who have watched countless boys crying wolf over the years will wager that some form of rescue package appears at the 11th hour; whether they can come back from the brink of disaster on the football field is becoming an issue for the long-shot gamblers.

The Elland Road faithful have until now shown almost blind belief in their favourites coming through these dark days and re-establishing a Premiership foothold. The inescapable message from them after this inept display against a hitherto desperate Tottenham was that they also are beyond hope.

"It was the first time the crowd have had a go since I came back here," Eddie Gray, the Leeds caretaker manager, said. "And they were thoroughly justified in showing their dissatisfaction."

Gray, too, was on the warpath, accusing the players he had inherited of "lacking the courage" for a fight and bemoaning their shocking lack of creativity. "If we are going to get out of trouble we are going to have to do it on our own ground," he said. "And we certainly didn't do that today. That was the most disappointing performance since I took over."

Leeds were not helped by the blunting of their much-vaunted spearhead of Mark Viduka and Alan Smith by a combination of misfortunes. Smith was completing his two-match suspension for throwing a plastic bottle back into the crowd and Viduka's mind was on his sick father in Australia.

Viduka offered to turn out for Leeds before flying back to his homeland. A grateful Gray accepted but soon realised it was a pointless exercise and withdrew the worried striker at the interval. Arrangements for a return flight to England have not yet been made.

At the other end Robbie Keane made a second return to the club who sold him at the start of their disastrous asset-stripping campaign and again made them pay with the decisive strike 10 minutes into the second half.

Keane, who scored in both fixtures against Leeds last season, knew the significance of his shot past Paul Robinson so spared the home supporters a trademark celebration of somersault and mock gunslinging.

"I have a habit of scoring against my old clubs but I never do the celebration routine against them," said Keane, who stated the most important aspect of a day of mixed emotions was the result which lifts Spurs into a position of respectability.

The script also dictated a farewell goal from Freddie Kanoute before his African Nations Cup jaunt with Mali, but the former striker was denied by an excellent Robinson save before shooting embarrassingly wide late on.

He will be asked to make a brief return from his Mali training camp to play against Liverpool next weekend but Pleat warned: "We have to pretend he is ill in case he doesn't appear and be ready to get on with things without him."

Pleat, who dismissed as "pure speculation" the possibility of Italy coach Giovannini Trappatoni replacing him as manager next season, welcomed his side's second league victory in four days in a surge out of the relegation zone. "It makes us feel a lot better," he said.